


From dawn onto infinity

by TheOctopusofWriting



Category: One Piece
Genre: Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Canon-Typical Violence, Fluff, Happy Ending, Light Angst, M/M, Reincarnation, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Soulmates, Temporary Character Death, War, basically zoro and luffy live a bunch of different lives, kind of?, only because its reincarnation, you best believe theyre soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-18
Updated: 2017-11-18
Packaged: 2019-02-03 21:20:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 19,756
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12756417
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheOctopusofWriting/pseuds/TheOctopusofWriting
Summary: Zoro and Luffy are cursed by a scorned priest, doomed to live separated throughout a thousand lives and a thousand different worlds before their souls can ever know peace and rest together once again.But a thousand lives is not forever and what does the time matter when you have promised to find each other again?((I shall wait for you in our one thousandth and first life.))





	From dawn onto infinity

**Author's Note:**

> This has been kicking around my head forever and is basically an excuse to write like 10 different zolu drabbles in one go, also i finally wrote a zolu fic without accidentally spoiling to sammy 
> 
> also i was really obsessed with like homeric circle style storytelling so if you see a lot of parallels thats on purpose
> 
> this fic was written mostly to the sounds of BTS' "Love Yourself" album

\- 0 -

There was something about the quiet, blue atmosphere of the early morning that made the camp seem eerily peaceful; as if it was stuck between the waking and sleeping world. The early morning fog was still settled low and heavy over the camp, a gossamer cloud woven between the tents like a ghost come to visit.

Zoro was laid out on his stomach, head resting on his folded arms and the partial corner of the pillow still on his side of the bed. He watched for a long moment as the camp slowly moved from the dark of night into the first vague notions of early dawn. Zoro blinked slowly, sleep still clinging heavily to his eyes and bones. If he strained his senses hard enough, he could hear the low murmur of the doctor attending to patients, the sound of the blacksmiths forge already going, and the very soft sounds of one of the bards beginning to rouse the people, he could smell whatever the cook was beginning to prep for breakfast.

With a low huff of air, he threw the blankets off his form and sat up in bed, hand coming up to ruffle his hair back into position and the rub at an eye. He cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders before finally directing his attention to the figure sat in a chair at the nearby table.

He couldn’t see his face from here, but the slump of the other man’s narrow and bare shoulders and the way his head was tilted to the side at an unnatural angle told him that the tents other occupant was fast asleep.

Zoro swung his feet to the rug-covered ground and made his way over to the other man, one hand wove through the messy black hairs easily, his other hand rest lightly on the other mans exposed side. Zoro dropped his lips to the mans bared shoulder and placed a gentle, chaste kiss there.

“Why are you up so early my King?” the words were whispered in the skin of his shoulder.

“Zoro,” he whined, voice still sleepy and hoarse, “How many times have I told you not to call me that?”

Zoro smothered his chuckles into the shoulder his lips had been pressed against, “Sorry, Luffy.”

Luffy gave him a sleepy, yet bright, smile and reached up his own hand to move Zoro’s face closer to him to press their lips together slowly and languidly.

Zoro relished these moments between them, in a war camp like this, times of peace were almost lost among the commotion. Luffy parted their lips with a pleased hum. Zoro pressed his forehead into the nook between Luffys neck and shoulder and closed his eyes once again. He was still close enough to sleep that he could almost slip back into its vestiges.

Rising this early wasn’t completely unusual for his young King, but Zoro would have rather it be because Luffy couldn’t wait to go on an adventure or explore rather than the current circumstances.

Luffy was the youngest of three kings who had been gifted parcels of this land from his father, the rest of the land from his father was ruled over by Luffy’s two elder brothers despite not being related to Luffys line by blood. Before all of this, and this war camp, Luffy had been a king who preferred spending his days among the people and exploring rather than strategizing war plans. But there was a country just beyond his and his brother’s borders who had engaged in war with Luffys entire family.

They had infiltrated his eldest brothers land, razed it to the ground and taken his brother as a hostage.

He could see the changes this situation had already made to his King. Where before, he was almost always joyful and bright and at ease among his people, now there was a serious that he wore around him like a heavy coat. There were still times where Luffy acted as he did before the war but that was seldom seen outside of this tent and outside of the companionship of those Luffy trusted most.

Ace had been betrayed by someone amongst his council.

That betrayal had struck something deep in Luffy who had never considered those closest to him to be able to do something of the sort.

Zoro began idly placing close mouthed kisses up and down the column of Luffys neck, layering a few extra on the dark marks that Zoro had left there the night before. Zoro delighted in the way Luffy giggled and relaxed further into his hold, tipping his head back until it rested on Zoros own shoulder.

“Ugh gross, I don’t need to see this early in the morning.” An exasperated voice called from the entrance to the tent.

Zoro only lofted one lazy brow at Nami before continuing his slow path up and down Luffy’s neck.

Nami snorted at the casual dismissal and traipsed inside the tent, folding herself into the seat next to Luffy.

Much like Zoro himself, who had been taken in as an orphan and raised by the knights in Luffys family, Nami had also grown up at Zoro and Luffy’s sides. They had all seen each other grown from small children who crashed through the forest together behind the castle, into lanky teenagers, and then into the young adults they were now. Together the three of them spearheaded the rule of this land, Luffy was their King, Nami was his royal advisor and Zoro was the Captain of the Guard.

Nami had also been there when Zoro and Luffy started to realize the feelings they held for each other, and she had been suffering ever since they started fooling around and flirting with each other. She had seen them grow from fooling around to a serious partnership, though to be honest that change happened almost immediately after Zoro and Luffy realized their affections were mutual.

Nami had also been presented at the small ceremony were the two had been handfasted together, though neither of them followed any religion, this action was recognized by all as a binding recognition of their affections for one another in their own eyes and in the eyes of any god or government.

So, in short, this was not the first intimate moment that she had walked into, it was not the most intimate moment she had walked in on, and it was certain that this wouldn’t be the last.

In turn Luffy and Zoro had been witnessing the awkward courtship Nami was being presented from both one of Luffys closest friend who lived amongst the common folk but was somewhere in their camp at this moment either snoring or telling stories, and the advances from the cook as well.

“Why’re you here so early Nami?” Luffy asked, as he free hand carded through Zoro’s already mussed hair.

“Correspondence from Sabo.”

Luffy quickly took the parchment from Nami’s outstretched hand, after she pulled the scroll from the sleeve of her long robes. Zoro hooked his chin over Luffy’s shoulder and skimmed the letter. He gathered Sabo was thanking them for sending Jinbe and the other naval officers to help try and fend off the recent attack Marineford had launched upon them. It seemed after one brother was captured they had moved focus to the second one while Luffy and Sabo had both been distracted launching rescue efforts. Sabo also expressed his feelings of helplessness and unease in the coming battles.

A pit of worry nestled at home inside Zoro’s throat.

The sound of arguing voices reached their ears, Luffy rolled the scroll and placed it into the sleeves of his own robes which he had shrugged on from where they had been gathered in his lap. Zoro himself also fetched the garments he had left on the ground of their tent and pulled them over his head as two new guests entered the tent. He looked up to see who was approaching their tent and was slightly shocked to see daylight had already chased away the blue of the morning.

The downside to the peaceful, blue nature of early morning was that it never seemed to last long.

The first was Robin, a close friend of the three of them, she had come the camp out of seemingly nowhere and possessed something of a clairvoyant streak and a deep knowledge of history. She walked in a calm look on her face, the only tell of her annoyance was a slight folding between her brows, the main noise came from someone Zoro had no positive regard for: the priest who had drifted into their camps a few weeks ago.

Zoro tuned out their cases and arguing for the most part, something about politics, but he focused on the priest.

He had been wary since the stranger entered their camp and each day the distrust had grown. He had come from nowhere, but once he caught sight of Luffy he had proclaimed a god had sent him to see Luffy’s plight through and make him the King of Kings, a god in his own right. The priest was never far from his King’s side, always quick to sidle up to him and offer sweet words and compliments, to laud praises at Luffy. Zoro had seen the way the priests eyes would wander, the way they’d linger on the side of Luffys face or the soft slope where his neck met his shoulders.

It wasn’t just because of the leering that Zoro developed a negative opinion of the priest. In a time of war such as this it would not do for people they didn’t trust to know just who Luffy held nearest to his heart in the chance that secrets were being funneled from the camp into their enemies waiting ears.

The main reason Zoro didn’t trust this priest, was that for someone who proclaimed his life to serve Luffy, who often vocally extoled the self-sacrificial deeds he would undertake to see Luffy’s dream through to the end, Zoro knew these were just empty words. There was no conviction behind his promises, just a hunger to win a spot of Luffys affection and earn a place by his side.

Zoro knew very well what those promises sounded like coming from someone who wholeheartedly believed in what they were saying. He had said words much like those to Luffy when they were handfasted together, and he repeated them to himself whenever his duty to protect his King arose.

Zoro surfaced from his thoughts and noticed the talking in the room had petered out and he looked to Nami who was mulling over her own thoughts.

“In my opinion, my King” Nami began, the title was said with a hint of irony that everyone in the room but the priest noticed because they were some of the few who never addressed Luffy by title in privacy, “The priests plan seems risky. He claims that moving our forces to a closer location was favorable in a vision from his God, but Robin herself is warning against it. No offense, your holiness, but Robin’s foresight hasn’t steered us wrong yet.”

“But her plan is too slow, if we forestall movement for any longer the chance to rescue our Kings brother grows slimmer. I saw it in my dreams, the light of his fire is close to out.” The priest said imploringly, placing his hands on the table in front of them and lowering himself to eye level with Luffy. “My King I beg you. Listen.”

Luffy got up with an almost silent huff, as he paced back and forth. Zoro disliked this expression on his Kings face, he seemed so far from the man he was at heart. Zoro would cut through any enemy to bring back the ease to his King. Luffy was never one for waiting to decide something for a long time. He tilted his head to glance over his shoulder back at Robin,

“What were the dangers you saw about his plan?”

Nami sighed and her shoulders drooped the smallest fraction, with that question from Luffy they knew he was almost completely decided on the going with the priests plan. The thought didn’t sit well with Zoro, he could feel something railing in the back of his mind and plucking at this instincts that there was only danger, unnecessary danger, down this path.

“I can’t say exactly what the danger is, my visions are never that clear.” Robin admitted, “But I read in my tea leaves, destruction and deep sorrow, ill fated omens my King.”

“Perhaps the premonition was for our current plan?” Luffy wondered aloud, one hand vaguely carding through his messy hair, “With the news from my brother I can’t afford to wait.”

“Thank you, my King, for listening to me.” The priest bowed, voice dripping sweet like honey.

“I’m not doing that plan entirely however,” Luffy continued as if they priest hadn’t spoken to him, “We’ll split the forces, one goes to the original location, the other will advance to this new second location.”

Nami tilted her head considering the idea, while Zoro merely waited, his input in these situations was less so the planning strategy but was more the battle strategy and helping enforce Luffys decisions. Nami was Luffy’s brain but Zoro was his hands.

“That could work,” Nami admitted, she locked eyes with Robin who gave a tentative nod in agreement. “Just in case one location goes south, we’ll have the other forces stationed somewhere else and if it works we’ll have an advance camp prepared for the second group.”

The priest bowed, “Thank you for hearing my plea. I shall leave you so I may go commune with the spirits and dreams I have been bestowed.”

Zoro watched unimpressed as the priest bowed low, but his eyes were trained hungrily on the profile of Luffys face. The foreboding feeling in his mind strengthened and his distrust of the priest grew. Though Zoro waited until both the priest and Robin had left the tent for a few moments before speaking up.

“I don’t trust him.” Zoro admitted crossing his arms.

“Is it that or do you not like how he watches Luffy like a hawk?” Nami teased digging a finger into one of the muscles on his arm.

He shrugged her off, “That’s beside the point.”

“I don’t like the guy either.” Nami sighed, “But he brought all of his devout followers and the forces are a good boost for us.”

“Who priest dude?” Luffy asked plopping back into the chair between them. “Yeah he’s super weird,” Luffy trailed off his eyes fixated somewhere far in the distance, “But I have to get to Ace quickly.”

Nami nodded, “I get that. Theres just something that feels unsettling about this Luffy.”

Luffy tilted his gaze back to her, eyebrow pulled up at her serious tone. “Something feels wrong but,” Luffy placed a hand on the robes over his chest, gripping the fabric tightly in his fist, “I don’t know if it’s the priest or if its Ace and I can’t take the chance on Ace.”

Nami stood up from her chair, brushing off the dirt from her robes, she placed a quick kiss to the hair on the crown of Luffys head, “I hope it is just worry for Ace and nothing more.”

She gave a nod to Zoro and with that swept out of the tent.

Luffy shook himself vigorously, as if casting off the seriousness that had pervaded the room and spun in his chair to face Zoro again.

“You asleep over here?”

Zoro snorted, “Just thinking.”

“Don’t hurt yourself.” Luffy snickered.

Zoro shoved his shoulder but couldn’t keep the wide grin off his face. “You shouldn’t be the one to tell me that. You and I are the same.”

Luffy’s grin softened at that last sentence, which Zoro returned in kind. Their friends would tease them about the similarities between them and often said they were the same when they were being made fun of by everyone. But between the two of them they knew the line echoed the sentiments they had shared during their handfasting. Luffy leaned across the scant distance between and chastely kissed Zoro before moving to stand up.

Zoro caught by the hand and pulled him back down for another slow kiss, before the sounds of the camp waking up called them both away to their respective duties.

It was always amusing to see the two different sides of Luffy, there was the Luffy he and their close friends got to see, the Luffy behind closed doors which was the truest Luffy; then there was the Luffy in the public eye, the King beloved by his people but on a worryingly dangerous quest, this Luffy was more serious, his smiles weren’t quite as carefree and unbidden as they were in closed quarters.

Zoro would savor ever second of that genuine smile that he was gifted.

The day drew quite long with war talks. Tomorrow their forces were supposed to split and go to the two different locations that they had discussed early in the morning. Zoro and Nami flanked Luffy throughout these meetings, in these talks Zoro spoke up more than he had this morning, now that it was more his area of expertise.

The only part of this plan that Zoro had to bite back his disagreements with was who was heading each squadron. In the strictest most rational sense of the plan it made sense, Zoro and Luffy were the strongest warriors among the entire camp and both leaders. Before, back when he was still a prince and not quite yet the King, Luffy had been the Captain of the Kings Guard and after he was coronated, Zoro moved into the position.

Their soldiers listened and respected the both of them and the two of them each spearheading an approach to their attack was the plan that guaranteed the most success.

But it didn’t mean Zoro had to like the idea of being separated from Luffy in battle.

He knew Luffy was strong, the two of them hadn’t really sparred in quite some time but Zoro was certain Luffy could still hand his ass to him by the end of it.

But Zoro had sworn to protect Luffy, he was his sworn shield no matter what and it made Zoro uneasy to have to be somewhere where he couldn’t assist or protect his King.

He grit his teeth against the rebuttal rising in his throat, swallowing down all of the disagreements he wanted to voice. If there were to succeed he knew it’d have to be done this way. As Zoro felt himself begin to tense with the rising distaste in his mood he felt the lightest of touches drift up through the wrist opening of his robe, a hand gently encircled his wrist for a moment before disappearing just as fast. Had he been anyone else Zoro may have been a bit embarrassed by how easily the gesture from Luffy had calmed him down, but Zoro had no sense of shame in this matter.

The touch was not meant to rebuke Zoros anger, it was more of a reassurance from Luffy and a recognition. It was likely Luffy himself didn’t enjoy the idea of the two of them being separated so far on the battle field.

The day dragged on long.

Sanji, who split time between cooking meals and attending the strategy meeting itself, had ducked from the tent a few times that day only to return with the gathered parties meals that they had missed.

Finally, after the sun had set but before the moon was high in the sky, the planning had finally finished. The sub-captains had all dispersed slightly earlier to tell the rest of the forces the plan for the next.

As Zoro and Luffy bid the rest of the group their goodbyes, they slowly walked back to their own tent. Out of the corner of his eye, Zoro thought he may have seen the priest again, the man had been lurking close to Luffy every time the King had left the tent to attend to some other matter. He shook thoughts of the other man from his head as he wrapped a secure arm around Luffys waist and the two of the trudged tiredly to their tent. Luffy chuckled and wormed his own arm around Zoros waist and the two of them carried on their way.

In the tent, they blearily undressed to their night clothes and all but face planted in the bed. They both flopped onto their backs with a weary sigh after a long moment of just lying face down.

Luffy grasped one of Zoros hands and idly played with his fingers. He sang something softly under his breath as he continued his ministrations, Zoro was used to the song it was something Luffy had made up but for some reason he would hum it to himself near constantly.

“Are you worried tomorrow?”

Zoro paused, “Im not worried,” he began. “theres still something that im not sure about, but I don’t like having to be so far from you in battle.”

Luffy hummed thoughtfully a slight frown etching onto his face, “I don’t like it that much either. But Zoros strong and Im strong.” He ended his statement with a shrug.

Zoro wiggled his hand free from Luffys grasp and then rolled so he was partially on top of Luffy and able to bury his face in Luffy’s neck. Luffy just laughed and moved a hand to play with Zoros hair.

“I trust you.” Zoro mumbled into the skin of Luffys neck.

Luffy paused his ministrations for a moment, and then he was rolling his body to the side quickly. The momentum forced Zoro flat on his back while Luffy sat above his, his weight baring across Zoros thighs, while his hands lay flat on the bed space just above Zoros shoulders.

“I trust Zoro with my life.”

Zoro felt his chest grow warm at the statement, he placed his hands on either side of Luffys face and pulled their lips down to meet. The kisses weren’t reckless but slow and heavy with passion, they still moved with a slow glide of lips and tongues, the air between them growing thick. The both of them were pushing all of the unease about tomorrow, their feelings for each other into the kiss.

They were both so focused in savoring their last chances to be together until after the upcoming battles, because Luffy’s group was to leave hours before Zoros would have to even be up, that they didn’t hear the flap of their tent open.

“So, this is why you had yet to respond to my affections?” A cold, hard voice broke through their reverie.

Luffy and Zoro pulled apart and turned to face the new voice only to find the priest standing stock still in their entryway.

Luffy sat back up onto Zoros thighs and turned his head to face the priest. “What affection?”

This only seemed to spike the ire of the priest, his face contorted unnaturally for a moment before smoothing into a terrifyingly still expression.

“Even though I come here, and I devote myself and my god to helping you achieve your dreams, you still refuse to even accept or acknowledge my affections?”

Zoro and Luffy cast each other a confused look.

“What are you getting at?” Zoro asked, his own anger building on the heels of his confusion.

“I didn’t say you had to do any of that?” Luffy said quirking an eyebrow at the irate priest, “You came to our camp and offered your services but nothing about affections was talked about.”

Zoro sighed inwardly, leave it to Luffy to be the only person in the camp who hadn’t noticed how the priest felt for him.

The priest withdrew something from his satchel that was always tied at his waist, it was hard to see but it was some old and worn, a small rope of some sort that Zoro could see from his spot in bed was tied in an intricate series of knots.

“I curse the both of you.” He spoke, his voice was no longer angry or cold, now it was almost terrifyingly deep and echoed in the space of their tent.

“Across a thousand lives and a thousand worlds, your souls shall never be able to know the peace of one another. It will be a thousand lives before your souls can ever rest together again.”

As he finished speaking without even a spark or flame, the rope in his hands caught fire, he tossed it to the ground and disappeared from their tent. Before Zoro or Luffy could even overcome their shock and move from the bed the rope had burned down and there was no trace of the priest at all.

They hadn’t even seen him leave the tent.

“Hes gone. Even if we send scouts he wont be found.” Luffy muttered to himself.

“Are you sure?” Zoro asked, he had half a mind to chase down the priest, “We can still send patrols out.”

Luffy shook his head to deny the offer, “He’s gone from the camp I just know it,” He shrugged, “the men need to rest for tomorrow anyhow.”

Zoro nodded in agreement, “Do you think his curse was real?”

Luffy crossed his arms and tilted his head to the side to think, just about until he was red in the face. He gave a loud sigh of exasperation.

Zoro snorted, “I’ll take that as a ‘you don’t know.’”

Luffy paused and looked down at Zoro, his gaze was thoughtful and Zoro waited silently for him to continue his train of thought. Zoro wasn’t very religious in the slightest but the words had grated across his skin uncomfortably.

Luffy picked up Zoros left hand and held it tightly in his own. Zoro felt his exhale catch in the back of his throat as Luffy recreated the hold from the handfasting ceremony, as Luffy placed his right hand atop their interlocked hands Zoro placed his own below them.

“It doesn’t matter if its real or not, as we have said You and I are the same.”

Zoro continued the phrase, “of one soul, mind and heart. In the sight of any and every god we are one.”

Luffy leaned in close, his face a hairs breadth away from Zoros own, their hands trapped between them. “entwined through this life and all others.”

Zoro felt something in him ease slightly at the saying, he brought luffys hands to his lips and left a dry kiss across the knuckles. Luffy giggled, the tension in the room broke and lightened. He planted a swift kiss onto the corner of Zoros mouth, missing his objective slightly due to his haste, and then rolled from atop Zoro and laid out next to him.

“Besides,” Luffy had muttered, voice thick and heavy with sleep, “He only said a thousand lives, that’s not forever.”

Zoro chuckled, chest now warm and light compared to how it was moments earlier, “Then I shall wait for you in our one thousandth and first life.”

Luffy smiled, his eyes having already slipped close, in the state between asleep and awake, “I’ll hold you to that then.”

He then hummed a quick goodnight and fell fully into sleep almost immediately, Zoro lay awake a few moments longer committing the sight of Luffys peacefully sleeping face to memory before falling into his own dreams.

In the early morning, before dawn had even begun to arise, Luffy slipped from their bed. Zoro woke just barely enough to catch a hand in the hem of his night clothes.

“Make sure you come back to me.”

Luffy giggled and squeezed Zoros hand before removing it from his clothes.

“and you back to me.”

Zoro grinned as sleep claimed him once again for a few more hours.

Hours and one long march later, Zoro and his half of the battalion waited around the small temporary campsite they had established. The camp was simmering with an underlying tense aura, the plan had been for them to march here and immediately set into battle, but when they got here there had been no one for miles around.

It was unsettling to say the least.

Zoro didn’t know the full strategy for Luffys side of the battle but he knew it mirrored his own, but instead of marching into battle immediately theirs would have been an ambush attack.

Zoro eyed the warriors who had come with him, surprisingly even with the disappearance of the priest from their camp his followers had stayed with them and even took up arms to march into battle alongside him.

Turning from the men and women scattered behind him, Zoro kept his gaze trained on the sky. Both Zoro and Luffy had been presented with small, compact fireworks created by Usopp that they were to shoot off into the sky depending on how things had gone. There were each given two, one that should explode green if they had overtaken their enemies and it was safe for the other side to join them. The one Zoro was desperately hoping to not see was the other one which should explode red. This flare was only to be used in the direst of situations, if their forces had fallen.

The day slowly slide on, with Zoros gaze unwavering on the sky. Movement in the woods before him caught his attention for the barest of seconds.

He could have sworn a figure clad in white was skirting around the trunks of the ancient trees.

A distant whistle caught his attention as well as a flare of light.

Zoros head shot up to catch the tail end of the flare.

His blood froze in his veins and his heart gave two painful thumps as the red firework glittered down from the sky.

There was no way.

It was impossible.

The red flare meant their forces had been crushed, which meant that Luffy, who was never anywhere but the thick of fighting had fallen.

Luffy was dead.

Zoro was distantly aware of someone gasping for air.

He realized a moment later it was him.

His heart was rending itself in his chest, each beat more painful than the last. The blood rushed in his ears turning him deaf. Zoros feet stumbled into the woods, moving blindly towards the direction the flare had gone off in.

He had to get to Luffy.

They had promised to return to each other.

He had to go.

His eyes caught the white figure in the woods. This time it wasn’t moving.

As he looked up to see what it was he was dimly aware of another sharp pain in his chest and the sound of splintering wood.

Almost with a detached sort of observation, Zoro looked down and saw and arrow sticking out of his chest, pinning him to the tree.

He looked up to catch sight of the figure again only to see that it was the priest standing amongst the shadows of the trees. A sick smirk twisted at his face as he bowed mockingly and turned to leave without a word.

With quickly fading consciousness Zoro realized the priest had sold their plan out to the opposing side. The reason no one was here and the reason that Luffy had fallen, all of the soldiers had been waiting for them were Luffy was.

While Zoro was here doing nothing, Luffy had been fighting every single soldier.

Zoros own anger at himself quickly faded back into heart wrenching grief. Desperation still tinged at his thoughts. He didn’t even hear the shouts of his warriors behind him or the distant oncoming thunder of horses hooves.

All Zoros senses had faded to a single thought before the world faded to black permanently. Zoros last thoughts were that he had to get back to Luffy, he couldn’t break his promise.

He needed to get back to him.

Little did he know, Luffys last thoughts had been a direct echo of his own.

And then there was nothing but darkness.

\- 56 –

Luffy blinked awake when there was a sudden loud bang very close to his face. Grumbling to himself, Luffy sat up and stretched a bit before looking around to see what made the noise.

He immediately was met with the impatient face of his teacher and a large book hefted in her hands.

“What’s up?” Luffy asked cocking his head at the teacher. “What’s with the book?”

Luffy could see his teacher clench her jaw before she spoke to him.

“I’m glad you feel so comfortable in class, but if you could refrain from sleeping in the middle of lessons and speaking so casually to your teacher I would be even more glad.”

Luffy blinked at her almost uncomprehendingly, across the room he could hear the very tell-tale sound of a palm meeting someones forehead. For the life of him Luffy couldn’t figure out why Usopp was freaking out all the way over there so he turned his attention back to his teacher who was steadily growing more annoyed.

“Sure teach?” He hedged casually, still unsure where her annoyance was coming from.

She huffed a breath, eyes closing tightly for a moment before stalking back to the front of the class. The rest of the room tried and failed to hold in their snickers of glee which threw Luffy off a but he wasn’t too sure what was funny be he hated to be left out of a joke so he laughed along with them.

“If you are so awake now, then why don’t you read the fifth passage for us Luffy?” The teacher called out, the forced calm in her voice was evident to the entire class who shut up so quickly half almost bit their tongues.

Luffy looked down at the open book he had been sleeping on.

Well, this was confusing.

The teacher wanted him to read the fifth passage but the book he had only had math problems.

Shrugging to himself, Luffy started to read the fifth problem figuring that this was what she was asking for.

As soon as he began talking, the class erupted into boisterous laugher which made Luffy smile, because if he was making the class laugh then he must’ve done something right. But over the cacophony of sound he could hear Usopp’s tired groan.

The teacher slammed the book down once again, and the class clammed up immediately.

“That is it Luffy, I’ll see you in detention after school. Again.”

Luffy sat down in a bit of a huff.

He had only been doing what she asked of him so he didn’t understand why she was so angry that he read the question she wanted to read.

Luffy leaned back in his chair and looked out the window. He didn’t even want to be in school. It was boring and pointless.

But most of all it was _really_ boring.

All he wanted to do was go outside and explore and go adventure somewhere. He didn’t want a boring job with a lot of math and sitting in small crowded rooms.

He wanted excitement.

For as long as he could remember there was always something stirring in him, just beneath the surface of his skin. An itch to go out somewhere, to find something.

Sitting still was impossible.

The itch was ever-present and lived on his skin like coat. He would waste away in rooms like this. Just sitting and learning things he didn’t want or need to know.

He knew he needed to go somewhere.

To find something.

The bell signaled the end of the class and Luffy was up and out of his chair at the sound just like the racer at the start of a race.

Luckily his next class was gym and this was one of the only times of day where Luffy actually enjoyed school. Usopp however, not so much, the other boy in question was lain down on the track willing his lungs to work again.

“I don’t understand you.” Usopp groaned, throwing a sweaty arm over his eyes to block out the sun. “Running is evil.”

Luffy leaned over him grinning, “It’s easy I like it.”

Usopp huffed and kicked at him weakly with one foot, “Of course you like it you’re a monster.”

Luffy’s reply was cut off as a manicured hand grasped him by the ear and dragged him away from Usopp.

“Ow hey Nami what gives?”

“First of all, idiot,” Nami began releasing his ear, which Luffy rubbed gently to soothe it while glaring at her petulantly, “I heard you got detention again, and second its your turn to run.”

Luffy perked up at this, and trotted away from Nami, who just sighed and sat on the track next to Usopp who was still doing his best impression of a dead man.

Luffy took place at the starting block in his lane, he could hear the boys next to him mumble and groan at having to run against the ‘star of the track team’ but Luffy tuned them out easily.

Running was fun and simple, and when he was running the itch beneath his skin settled into a low hum for once.

At the teachers whistle he was pushing off and striding across the track.

All he could hear was the pounding of his heart in his ears like a war drum and the steady cadence of his feet hitting the track. The struck the ground like a steady beat, a chant only he could hear. A call for him to run, to go as fast and as quick as possible.

To find what made him feel so unsettled and incomplete.

Before he knew it, he was back at the starting line and his lap was done. He distantly heard the rest of the class clap for him and murmur. He looked back and saw his other classmates who were running still at least a half of the track behind him.

The end of the school day found Luffy waiting impatiently outside of his teachers classroom. His brothers had heard of his detention, and Ace had immediately thrown himself into a fit of laughter only to immediately start complaining when Sabo reminded Ace that he also had to go to detention.

Ace and Luffy had seethed, over loud and exaggerated while Sabo set off down the hallway a beatific and smug look on his face as he cheerily waved at the before leaving the school all together.

“Smug bastard.” Ace had muttered, he had then quickly ruffled Luffys hair – dodging luffys attempt at a return ruffle – and set off leisurely to his own detention.  

So now Luffy was impatiently waiting for his teacher to collect him from where she had told him to wait. He sighed and rocked side to side feeling mind numbing boredom already begin to set in his mind. The rocking turned into pacing and when his teacher finally deigned to show up Luffy was striding up and down the length of the hallway.

“Luffy, with me,” His teacher said turning and walking off down the hallway, “I’m the chaperone of one of the service clubs so for your detention you’ll be assisting me there.”

The bus ride was torturously long and since he was technically serving detention every time he had reached for his phone his teacher shot him a warning. So Luffy had cut his losses and crossed his arms leaning back in his seat on the bus determined to sleep his way through the ride at the very least.

A harsh slam on the breaks had Luffy falling forward in his seat and waking up from the doze he had easily slipped into. His loud complaints cut off as something caught his eye outside.

Luffy all but slammed into the window as he craned his head to look at the trio passing by on the sidewalk.

There was a girl with shockingly pink and a blond boy walking together and Luffy saw the blond get swatted on the arm by the girl so he was probably doing something weird, but the third figure that was walking behind them with the brightest green hair Luffy had ever seen caught his eye.

His posture was leaned casually back as he trailed after his friends, but at the buses sudden stop almost at the same time Luffy had thrown himself against the window the boy he had been gaping at abruptly stopped and straightened like a rod had been shoved down his back.

There was the itch beneath Luffys skin again as they were still there almost frozen in time. Luffy staring through the glass and the other boy slowly turning around, the need to run the anticipation he usually felt before the start of a race.

Right when the other boy had fully faced around the bus had already pulled through the intersection effectively cutting off Luffys sight. He had only been able to catch a glimpse of the three earring the other boy had in his ear before he was blocked from the view.

Luffy slumped back into his seat, feeling oddly bereft and disjointed like something inside of him that had been in place before had suddenly been knocked askew.

The bus continued on like nothing happened and despite getting another detention the next day and even taking the same bus and route, the mystery boy Luffy had seen was never there. 

\- 137 –

No matter what he looked at all Zoro could see was the bars of his cage and all he could feel was burning anger deep in his gut and a sick taste of betrayal coating the back of his throat.

Imprisonment gave one a lot of time to think and all Zoro could keep thinking about was how he got here. How he got stuck in this small cage, preventing and repressing his powers and his demon abilities all because he had fallen in love.

And that love had betrayed him and left him here to die.

In this world, no one called him Zoro, this name was not the one he was given it was one that sat in his mind and had come to him unbidden.

Here, he was Hoshiyomi and he was a demon of great power and ability which had all been taken away from him by a human samurai, who had the oddest gift of spiritual and purifying abilities.

Though the people had called the samurai he had loved Tsukiyomi, Zoro had known him by another name: Luffy.

When the two of them had met Zoro had been taken instantly with him, much as how Luffy had been taken in with Zoro himself and together the two of them had been unstoppable.

From their first battle against lesser demons their teamwork had been flawless, Zoro didn’t quite get it but in the thick of the fight he didn’t even have to look to Luffy to know where he was needed.

Luffy would duck without Zoro having to saw a word, moving just in time for Zoros blade to come sweeping across the space he had been. Luffy would use his spiritual ability to purify and get rid of the demons, but Zoro, a demon himself, had only felt the magic as a gentle warm caress wrapping around him before it slide off from him.

There was no demon that could come close to touching them, to harming them, they cut through any demons in their paths with ease. Their movements so smooth and in sync that Zoro had heard at least one villager whom they had saved from an attack referring to the battle like a dance. Zoros favorite image had once been Luffy in mid-battle there was something awestriking about the calm and reassured way he fought through enemies, the quite grace to his powerful movements inspired awe to whoever was around to see it.

For Zoro at that moment in time, there was no place he rather be. He had his love at his side, the two of the slaying demons with ease making names and reputations for themselves. In the day they had the exhilaration and rush of battle, the excitement and the danger and at night he returned to Luffys side. They spent every moment they had together.

But then suddenly without explanation something had changed.

Luffy had always been an exuberant fighter, even after battle energy rolled off of him in waves. Battles had never exhausted him, they had always seemed to energize him. Zoro had first noticed the change after a rather large battle against some common and lesser demons.

The sight had caused his heart to trip over a beat.

Luffy had used his spiritual abilities to purify the demons and rid the earth of them but then there was a sight Zoro had never seen before.

Luffy had staggered.

After that it was a slippery slope and an easy descent as the situation got worse and worse. Their fights were still flawlessly choreographed but Luffy began to lose energy. Each spiritual attack seemed to drain the life from him. Battles no longer energized him. Zoro would have to sling an arm around Luffys worryingly thin hips and all but haul him to their rooms they were staying in at the moment.

At night after battles Luffy no longer had energy to do anything more than curl into Zoros side and fall into a disturbingly deep and still sleep.

Zoro had snuck off in the middle of the night and set about his plan to make everything right again.

He sought a craftsman to make him a weapon, if the spiritual powers Luffy used were taking his life then Zoro would take the life of the demons and turn it into energy for Luffy.

Zoro does not remember much of the crafting process, his mind had been so single mindedly focused on saving Luffy that he could only remember going to the craftsman to commission the weapon to save Luffy and the next thing he had known he was on a battlefield surrounded by over two hundred dead demons. He was covered in blood and for the life of him he had no idea how he had gotten there.

The weapon had been crafted and gifted to him, when he held the blade in his hands something dark pulled at his thoughts.

His mind whispered curse, but the blade whispered power and that overwhelmed anything else.

The blade infused him with such strength that Zoro felt as though he could take on anything and anyone and he’d come out the other side the victor.

The life had also returned to Luffy, slowly but surely his love had inched his way back from death and with the strong blade in Zoros hand he had no need to endanger Luffy so much with spiritual attacks.

Signs of strain between them had begun to crop up but at this time Zoro had paid no heed to it. All he could see was the blade in his hands and all he could feel was the strength it gave it and the endless hunger for power.

Zoro would black out for long periods of time and only come to post battle when Luffy had found him, once again covered in blood, but a wicked grin pulling at his face.

The night before the final betrayal, Luffy had been staring at the blade that was never more than a few inches from Zoros grasp.

“The blade is dark, its possessed you.” Luffy had said, tone so stiff and unnatural that Zoro tensed instinctively.

“The blade has given me power.” Zoro returned, “This blade is what saved you.”

“Then I must be the one to save you.” Luffy had muttered to himself, before rolling over to sleep.

Despite the tension that was simmering between them, waiting to explode into a full-blown cataclysm, Luffy still tucked himself into Zoros side at night when they slept.

On this last night, Luffy had tucked himself as close as possible, his lithe arms had been wrapped as tight as possible around Zoros midsection. Zoro himself had slept on easily and unaware of what had waited for him.

His love for Luffy had blinded him and the next day he was met with Luffy turning his spiritual abilities on Zoro and sealing him in this prison, taking away the blade Zoro had made to save Luffy.

“What are you doing?!” Zoro had yelled slamming in the barrier, anger clouding his vision.

Luffy held the sword in his grasp, “I’m going to save you. This sword has possessed you. I will free you when I have destroyed this.”

“I won’t forgive you if you leave me here.” Zoro had spat at Luffy as the other was turning to leave.

“I will free you Zoro, I will be back.”

Luffy promises fell on deaf ears, all Zoro could see was his sword in Luffys grasp and the barrier between them, all he could focus on was that last night he had fallen asleep with Luffy in his arms and he had woken up imprisoned.

“You have betrayed me.” Zoro whispered long after Luffy had left him alone in his solitude.

Which brought Zoro to where he was now, the betrayal sat like a wound in his chest, and only grew as Zoro could distantly sense the large outpouring of spiritual energy. Love had made him blind ad dumb.

Something shifted out of place in his mind when he felt the swords separate into two separate weapons. The anger and hurt now draped over him like a second skin, his fury only rising. The distant outpouring of spiritual energy cut off and Zoro waited for Luffy to return but the longer he was left alone and sealed away, the more the hurt and anger grew.

His love had taken his weapon and trapped him here, he had destroyed the aforementioned weapon and never returned like he promised. The deep-seated feelings of hurt, betrayal and anger grew and twisted until it was all Zoro knew anymore.

Luffy never returned for him, but what Zoro hadn’t known yet was the Luffy had died freeing him from the curse of his sword. Zoro hadn’t realized this yet, this action had only been Luffy breaking a promise and betraying him once again.

\- 485 –

War was messy and loud. There was no time to think when you were in the thick of the action. In the middle of battle strategies went out the window and even thought and breath and impulse were just focused on survival.

For Luffy, battle was almost second nature.

Some people shut down when the stress and commotion of battle him them. They froze under the pressure, legs locking, minds shutting down, fear was paralyzing for them.

Not when it came to Luffy. When the swell of noise reached them and the crest of the battle broke around them Luffy had always had a such startling clarity in that moment. Battle didn’t make him freeze, it pushed him forward.

He knew what the others in the encampment said of him, knew some took him as some sort of prodigy, a legacy. Some others even thought he was some sort of spirit of war reincarnated.

Luffy shrugged to himself and went back to lightly napping in his hammock. His platoon was not currently out on a mission, they had a few blissful moments of rest.

Usually Luffy would find himself in these moments tearing about the camp, causing mischief with any number of his friends in others platoons. Or even wheeling himself around the makeshift doctors office that Chopper, the youngest soldier of them but the most skilled doctor he or any other soldier had had out here so far, was stationed.

Messing around with Chopper usually ended with Luffy being forcibly removed by said boy because he was disturbing the resting patients.

Right now, most of the friends Luffy had that would be up for mischief and playing around weren’t stationed in the camp.

Usopp had been sent along with Nami for some sort of recon mission, Luffy had already messed with Chopper and was banned from the med tent unless he was actually dying at the moment.

There were a few other people around the camp that Luffy could go and play around with but he was content to sway in his hammock and doze lightly.

There was a tentative poke to his shoulder what felt like only seconds later. Luffy cracked one eye open and huffed up at whoever had woken him up.

“Um,” a hesitant voice started, “Luffy? Ms. Robin needs to see you…?”

Luffy groaned and sat up, blearily blinking up at the kid who had woken him. After a long second of staring Luffy vaguely recognized the kid as Coby, a kid who was training to be a soldier and had been deployed with them finishing his training with the other cadets in the campsite.

“Hmm whats up?” Luffy yawned.

Coby shifted in front of him. “Ms. Robin sent me to come a get you.”

Luffy grinned wide and happy, Robin was often busy as the lead communications officer and he hardly got to see her outside of work. He knew she was probably sending for him because of some mission or something but Luffy didn’t mind. He leapt to his feet and ruffled the kids hair happily, turning and even leaving before the kid could even finishing gaping and blushing at the sudden affection.

Luffy jogged to the communications tent, shouting greetings and waving at all the soldiers who passed him. Those who were used to him running about the camp just returned the greeting with a wave or a nod of their own, but the soldiers who were new among them, who weren’t used to his energy or who had only heard of him through the stories of his battles just gaped as he went past.

Luffy crashed loudly through the opening of the communications tent, calling out Robins name as he bounded across the area to her.

She was seated facing multiple computer screens, Luffy casually draped himself across her back, leaning his head on her shoulder as he peered at the screens in front of her.

“Hey Robin.”

“Hello Luffy, I see Coby succeeded in finding you.” She murmured as she typed away, not bothered by the additional weight on her back, she just readjusted her balance to support Luffy and continued doing her work.

Luffy hummed idly as he squished his cheek up next to Robins, after watching her work for a long second, long enough for Luffy to become bored of the screens in front of him, he gave out a loud gush of air.

“What’d you want with me? Did you want to hang out?”

Robin chuckled and shook Luffy off so she could turn and face him.

“Sorry Luffy not this time, I needed you for a mission.”

Luffy tilted his head and waited for Robin to continue, easily switching over from the carefree attitude he had had moments ago into the focused and mission ready state he was now in.

“One of the platoons from the other camp had a squad go missing. Their communications liaison reported heavy fire and then they lost contact. They don’t think the squad is dead but just stuck behind enemy lines. They contacted us for help to send in a team and help get them out of there.”

“Who’s the team that’s back there?”

“It was just a small fireteam, no more than five members lead by Roronoa Zoro.”

The name was confusingly familiar to Luffy, though he couldn’t put a face to it. He brushed it off and tuned back in for Robin to tell him who he was taking with him.

It was barely half an hour later when his small five man rescue team, headed by himself, along with Franky, an older soldier who had an affinity for having as many weapons on him at once and driving the large tank Robin had forced him to leave behind, and 3 newer soldiers who’s names Luffy had no hopes of remembering.

They trudged through the forest area, trekking their way to the dilapidated town where Zoro’s team had last made contact. Luffy hummed under his breath as he walked along, gaze cast up towards the trees watching the sunlight filter through the trees, occasionally chattering away with Franky about how cool the tank was or how he wanted to drive it next time. His ears pricked as he heard the soldiers behind them mention Zoro.

“Have you heard the stories about Zoro?” One whispered to the other, unaware Luffys humming had cut off and that they were now being shamelessly eavesdropped on.

“Yeah! Oh, he sounds so cool. His stories are like the ones you hear about Luffy.” The second one said rapidly.

The third one piped up, “What do you mean by that?”

“They saw he’s like a hound of war, or some sort of demon.” The first soldier gushed.

“He carries these long swords instead of the short knives we all have and he never uses a gun.” The second one whispered back.

Luffy heard Franky smother a snort into a short cough. The larger man nudged Luffy with his shoulder and leaned down to whisper to him,

“Ah the kids are so cute, gossiping about this dude like he’s a myth. They talk about you too like that. I guess whatever gets you through war you know?”

Luffy not knowing how to respond to Frankys statement and also not wanting to bother and eavesdrop again just launched into the second verse of the song he was making up as they walked, singing even louder than he had before.

He missed Frankys exasperated head shake and passing remark that only idiots who were as strong as Luffy was – might as well be a monster, someone had once said to Luffy regarding his battle skills – would walk straight into enemy territory singing at the top of their lungs.

When they had finally come upon the ruins of the town, Luffy felt the prickle of excitement take seed in his heart, he could see the enemy forces surrounding a building just waiting to lay fire on any sign of life. There was also a growing sensation of interest taking hold in the back of his mind as he thought about who this Zoro guy was gonna be.

Luffy had met plenty of strong guys who were bad men and ultimately got their asses handed to them by Luffy himself, but there had also been a few strong men who were good, who instilled in Luffy a drive to fight more, to do more, to be more.

He was interested to see where this Zoro guy would fall.

“So what’s the plan?” one of the other soldiers asked Luffy and Franky.

Luffy still had no idea what their names were, also in these uniforms they all looked the same. Besides Franky, but then again Franky was about the size of all of them put together.

Franky, however just unstrapped one of the very large guns he was toting around off his back and prepped it for battle almost lovingly. Luffy turned a grin full of barely contained excitement on the three more or less scared shitless soldiers.

“Frankys gonna take out the snipers with that thing, and then we’re gonna go in and clear the path.”

There wasn’t much more time for a plan because Franky was then signaling him that he was gonna open fire and from then on it was the chaos of battle.

Feet striking the ground in time with the pop of Frankys gun Luffy shot out from the brush they’d been waiting in and dove for the first enemy. Luffy wasn’t a big fan of guns, too long to reload clips, he had to waste time aiming and setting up his shot.

What Luffy excelled in was hand to hand combat. He ducked in close to the first enemy and knocked the waiting gun out of his hands. From there it was simple, and Luffy turned off his brain, never needing to think in these moments just letting his body do what came naturally.

He was distantly aware of the three other soldiers picking off enemies that got to close to him or were trying to get him while he was distracted and he could still hear the clip of Frankys gun getting the enemies they couldn’t see.

For as long as people took to prep for a fight the real thing was relatively short. A matter of minutes later, the five of them stood standing, some panting and gasping for air, as they took in stock of the remains of battle. Luffy stood fists clenched loosely surveying the field, he wasn’t panting from the fight, the rapid rise and fall of his chest more from the exhilaration of surviving a good fight than anything else.

Luffy gestured to two of the three soldiers standing behind him, “You two go up and tell Zoro’s team it’s safe, and the other one stay out here and make sure we don’t have any stragglers.”

Franky lumbered down the spot he had been stationed and helped free the passage to the doorway, Zoro and his team must have barricaded earlier at some point. Luffy picked his way around the bodies of the enemies checking for any weapons or signs of life or anything, he called over his shoulder to make sure the other soldier did the same.

He could hear the sighs of relief and cheers of Zoros platoon making their way through the building and back out to safety. There was a voice that rang over the others that Luffys ears couldn’t help but latch onto, the pitch was deep and the cadence steady, something about it struck a chord in Luffy and he turned to see who belonged to the voice.

Luffy stood rooted to his spot as a shock of green hair ducked underneath the doorway and out into the sunlight. He heard the voice direct to one of the cadets Luffy had sent inside, “Wheres your captain?”

At the cadets subtle gesture over to Luffy, Zoro looked up and the two locked eyes. Luffy could see shock and something else erase the composure of Zoro’s face as the two stared dumbly at each other for a long minute, before both of them started moving to cover the distance. They were only a few feet apart and Luffys mouth was opening to say something to Zoro when there was a sickeningly gurgled battle cry from the area behind where his last cadet had been checking bodies. 

Luffy reacted instinctively and shot the enemy who had been laying amongst the dead bodies pretending to be dead himself. Just because Luffy didn’t prefer guns didn’t mean he couldn’t use them. But the shot proved useless. As the enemy fell back down, dead this time and no longer faking, a grenade with the pin pulled rolled to a stop between Zoro and Luffy.

“Grenade!”

All of the cadets and Zoros platoon scattered as far away as possible, Luffy and Zoro shared a stunned wide-eyed look between the two of them before Zoro placed one large had on Luffys chest and shoved him backwards, diving on the still beeping grenade in the same movement.

Something about the image of Zoro hunched on the ground covering a grenade for him was so bone-chillingly wrong that Luffy took one staggered step forward before one of Frankys large hands fisted in the back of his collar.

Franky ignored Luffys protests and struggles and easily hauled him away from the grenade, covering his smaller body with his broad shoulder so much so that Luffy couldn’t see Zoro no matter how he tried.

All he could heard was the beeping as it began to kick up in pace.

When the beeping finally stopped, the explosion deafened Luffy but all he was aware of was a sudden pain deep in his chest, sharp and stabbing.

He looked down expecting to see shrapnel stuck in him but all he could see was his own uninjured chest.

\- 500 –

 It was New Year’s Eve and Zoro found himself standing on the threshold of a bar he had never been to before. He stared up at the flickering sign about him, if all the words were working it would have read ‘ _Saudade’_ but as it were only some were lit up so the bar was ‘ _S  da e’._

Zoro shouldered the door open and was immediately hit with a wall of noise from the current patrons of the bar. It made sense all of the bars and clubs, everywhere essentially, was packed in celebration for the new year. Zoro briefly scanned the bar he hadn’t ever been to the bar but when he was walking past it tonight there was something about it that pulled him in.

With his cursory glance Zoro could hardly see past any of the crowds. There was a vaguely familiar voice that was cheering loudly because there was only 5 minutes left until the new year.

Zoro picked his way through the crowd. He ducked around a guy who had at least two feet on him who was delivering drinks to a table of with two girls and some blond dude who was bemoaning that he was the one who was going to get the drinks for the girls at the table.

Zoro also just barely ducked in time as some curly haired idiot was startled by his friend, who looked way too young to be in a bar, toss his thankfully empty cup over his shoulder.

In the distant corner, Zoro thought he could hear some guy playing a stringed instrument and singing just barely heard over the rowdy group of celebrators.

Finally, having arrived at the bar, Zoro sank heavily into one of only two empty bar stools, he quickly flagged the bartender down for a beer not expecting to get his drink well until after the new year had started.

There was some noise of dissent from a corner area of the bar, the crowd over there was rather thick, he could see the people clustered just beyond the small group of people who were dancing in the middle of the bar floor. Zoro heard the familiar voice once again call out a countdown for three more minutes, but the call came from deep in the crowd of that area. He could see a blond-haired guy and a black-haired guy, standing on either their chairs or a table, yelling at whoever had called out while moving through the crowd, then they threw their hands up into the air, pure exasperation written into their body language. But beyond that he couldn’t see who they were yelling at so he shrugged and swiveled back around to watch the clock countdown on the monitor.

When there was about 2 minutes until the new year someone took the vacant seat next to Zoro. Zoro turned to see who had taken the seat and was met he knew he hadn’t seen before in this life, but nevertheless he knew the person. The new person in question just grinned widely at Zoro before swiping his beer and taking a long sip.

“It’s been quite a while.” Zoro snorted, pulling his beer back from his seatmate.

“It really has.” Luffy laughed spinning around on the stool, coming to stop where he was facing Zoro. “Look half the time has already passed until the new year.” He said gesturing to the countdown which now only had a minute to go.

“Looks like we’re about halfway done too.” Zoro said turning his beer bottle between his hands.

The last minute passed in silence between them. Around them the bar grew in noise at everyone was practically screeching the last 15 seconds before the year began again.

As the new year hit, there was a chaste press of lips against his. Zoro reflexively closed his eyes at the move and felt his whole body relax into the brief kiss.

Luffy pulled away and whispered, “See you at the end.”

When Zoro opened his eyes, Luffy had already merged into the masses, out of sight once again.

\- 562 –

The sun was hot and unforgiving as Luffy idly trailed along the path thru town.

If anyone were to ask him what he was doing, he’d probably just answer that he was out here walking around no goal in mind, but the truth of it was he was super lost.

To be fair he hadn’t been to this town before, but the kid he met on the road while traveling, his name was like Coby or Cory or something, wanted to come here so Luffy offered to go along with him until he made it. Once they had made it in the city he had immediately gotten separated from the kid which normally would be whatever but something in him was urging Luffy to stay here for a bit longer.

So, he was wandering around looking for Coby again. He technically wasn’t really lost, since he had no idea if Coby was still at the inn he had left him at before, he was just searching for him very slowly and not very seriously.

Eyeing a small stone on the path in front of him Luffy began to kick it as he continued his walk, losing all pretense of actually looking for Coby. So far, his trip had been rather eventful, even before he randomly picked a kid up that was hitchhiking. 

Luffy was just recently graduated from school, and there was nothing in his life that was pulling him determinedly in any direction. Not like one of his friends who had finished college and decided that what he wanted to do next was another harder version of college.

Luffy suppressed a shudder if there was thing he knew about what he wanted to do it was that he didn’t want to go back to schools and being stuck in a classroom all day. There was way too much out here to do than listen to teachers talk about boring subjects all day.  

So, after he had graduated Luffy had taken the small camera he owned, before the start of the trip is was mostly full of off center group photos and slightly blurry shots of his hometown, he took his camera and proposed that he was going on a trip around the country and that he’d be back when he wither got bored or ran out of funds. Thanks to his grandfather lending him money and setting up lodging his was still good on cash, though as Sanji had told him when he stopped by the city he lived him, a disproportionate amount was going to junk food; and thanks to his own personality there was no telling when Luffy would get bored of just being able to travel and explore.

When he had stopped by Robin and Frankys place on his trip, they had looked through his camera and joked that once they got past the out of focus photos there was some there they he could put together in a photobook and sell. Luffy didn’t really hate the idea but he also didn’t really care for it so he had just let them talk while tuning them out.

He had continued to take his blurry out of focus photos anyhow. He liked how they looked.

Luffy hummed to himself, making up a song as he strolled along the path the broke off from the main part of town and led him to the edge of a field. He broke off his humming and song as he saw a tree in the field that looked almost perfect to nap under.

Now that he was thinking about it he was feeling kind of sleepy…

Luffy jogged the rest of the way to the big old oak tree and flung himself at the roots of the tree, relishing in the shades drop in temperature. He swung his bag off of his back, not quite throwing it down because the camera was in there but he didn’t place it gently either. Luffy shoved the bag under his head as a makeshift pillow and wiggled around on his back for a second getting comfortable on the ground.

Some sunlight filtered through the branches of the tree and Luffy briefly wished for a hat or something to cover his face so the sun could stop hitting him right in the eye. Cutting his losses, he threw an arm over his eyes in an attempt to block out the worst of the sun’s rays.

Luffy blinked up at the shifting leaves above his head through the part of his vision that his arm couldn’t block. There was the weirdest feeling of déjà vu he kept feeling, he didn’t know what it was in response to but something here was super familiar. In between one slow blink and the next Luffy slipped into an unbidden sleep.

There was nothing worse than waking up from a nap you weren’t aware you had taken.

Luffy said up and rubbed sluggishly at his eyes as his brain tried to somehow turn back into some semblance of functioning. He felt off, like while he was asleep some piece of him had shifted out of place, his mind and body felt oddly disjointed and the entire world around him he processed through a thick haze.

There was a noise, somewhere close to him, that sounded vaguely like multiple voices arguing but at this point Luffy could only discern the muffled sounds of voice. He stared hard for a few seconds blinking as his mind slowly cleared and he realized he was looking at a group of people on the pathway in front of him.

He didn’t recognize any of them so Luffy contented himself to lay back down and watch the light through the trees again, successfully tuning out the irate mob, from the bit he had heard they were looking for some smug bastard and a kid or something.

As those voices slowly trailed away, Luffy could hear two new voices picking their way through the trees behind him. Luffy rolled over onto his stomach to peer into the woods.

“I told you, this is the wrong way we’re probably right behind those guys.” A timid voice was pleading, something about the tone struck Luffy as familiar but he couldn’t quite place it.

“No this is the right way. I’ve got this.” A deep voice answered back, completely sure of itself.

Luffy tilted his head in thought as he processed the newer voice, it wasn’t as familiar to him as the first voice had been but there was something deep in his brain that was alighting with recognition.

His eyes easily tracked the path the voices were taking from the woods, his mood having shifted from the peaceful relaxed state he had been in, to a narrow-gazed state of focus as he tried to figure out who was coming out of the woods.

Luffy sat up slowly as the duo of bickering voices neared a gap in the trees that would reveal the people to him. He sat up quickly as his gaze caught the worried look of Coby, who had darted back into the thicket of trees to yank on someone Luffy still couldn’t see.

“Oi Coby!” Luffy called, “Why are you in the trees?”

Coby’s gaze shot up and immediately the boys eyes almost filled with tears. He gave a loud wail of Luffy’s name and stumbled from the forest to the tree Luffy had been napping by.

“I was looking for you Luffy!”

“Me?” Luffy said confusedly, “But ive been right here?”

“I didn’t get to say goodbye to you,” Coby mumbled, a toe scuffing through the dirt. “You dropped me off at the house I was relocating to like you promised but I wanted to say thank you for helping me before you left again.”

“Oh,” Luffy giggled, standing up and brushing the dirt off himself, “It’s no big deal Coby!” Luffy gave the kid a hard clap on the back not even noticing the boys pained wince.

“I still wanted to!” He all but shouted, face immediately blushing as he flustered himself with his outburst. “But then I couldn’t find you and I ran into this gang but this guy Zoro stopped to help me and only ended up pissing the gang off more and now theyre looking for us.”

It was then that Coby realized whoever he had been with had gone missing again and he looked around frantically. Luffy spotted a man with green hair idly sauntering back down the path Luffy had originally taken.

“Is that him?” Luffy asked pointing a finger at the guy steadily getting closer to the angry group from earlier, who as it turned out hadn’t moved that far away.

“Oh no.” Coby wailed a shaky finger pointing in the direction of the gang, “Those are the guys who are pissed at him.”

Luffy was already striding over. He couldn’t quite place it, usually he wouldn’t act so quickly for some dude he didn’t even know but the guy helped his friend and there was something urgent pulling at him to move.

Luffy grit his teeth, feeling his jaw tense as he stalked closer to the group, his hands automatically clenching into fists. He was just close enough that he could hear Zoro asking the gang about how to get to town, and he could hear the gang indignant responses because it turned out Zoro didn’t even remember them.

Idly luffy realized he could relate these guys didn’t seem that strong or interesting, no wonder Zoro had forgotten who they were already.

However, Luffys eyes caught movement from the back of the group, there was one of the members moving to grab something out of the waistband of his pants. At the same time, Coby who must’ve seen the same thing Luffy had, shouted to warn Zoro.

But all this did was drag Zoros attention away from the gang and towards the frantically shouting boy.

Luffy could see the mistake.

As Zoro’s attention was drawn elsewhere, the man holding the weapon aimed steadily in Zoros direction. Luffys heart gave two painfully violent beats before he was sprinting towards Zoro.

There was no way he’d have made it to the guy with the weapon in time to stop anything so he settled for the next option. He didn’t know what it was but the idea of Zoro getting injured was raising all sorts of alarms in his head so Luffy did what he did best.

He acted on his instincts.

He caught up to Zoro, who was still yelling back to Coby, momentarily surprising all parties involved. Luffy planted his hands on Zoros chest, drawing Zoros attention to himself as he gave the man a hard shove and pushed him out of the way.

He saw Zoros wide eyed look of shock, a hand reaching back for him. Distantly he heard Coby yelling once again.

But over all of that he heard Zoro’s strangled sounding, “Hey wait you-”, before the sound of a trigger and a firing and the rest of the world faded to black.

\- 783 –

It was rather boring being stuck in a cart all day. There was only one small rectangular window that shone sunlight in the usually dark cage, most of the window was blocked by the figure who was driving the cart. Luffy mused over that for a second, the cart he had been imprisoned in was rather more cage than cart if he were being honest.

“I’m bored.” Luffy whined, shifting over to the head of the cart, by where the window was, peering up trying to catch the eye of the driver.

There was an amused huff from his driver and captor, “And that’s my problem because?”

Luffy pouted even though the driver wasn’t looking at him. “But you put me here.”

“Well I cant very well travel with a vampire in broad daylight now can I?”

“Zoros no fun.”

“Yeah yeah.” Zoro grumbled.

Luffy snuck a finger out through the small window and prodded him in the back repeatedly, ignoring the burning sensation of the sunlight on his exposed skin. Zoro jolted and poked Luffys finger back into the relative safety of the shade.

“Don’t come into the sunlight, you’ll burn.” Zoro warned turning slightly to stare into the darkness of the cart trying to hold eye contact with Luffy, despite not being able to see him in the shadowed corner he was sat in.

If Luffy concentrated he could hear the slow and steady beating of Zoro’s heart, his senses had dulled ever so slightly during the past few days that he’d been imprisoned here.

“I could withstand the sun more if I was able to eat.” Luffy grumbled, tone of his voice pitching slightly into a whine.

Luffy suddenly shifted onto his knees, his face coming up to be level with Zoros on the other side of the window. He felt a grin pull at his mouth, exposing his elongated fangs, when he could hear the quick stumble of Zoro’s heart and the slightest hitch in his breathing at his sudden appearance.

“I’m not letting you feed off of me.” Zoro said pitching his voice low, so that the other hunters that he traveled with wouldn’t hear them conversing this casually.

They were less casual with Luffy. The other hunters treated him exactly like the stories he had grown up hearing, with extreme violence and mistrust. Luffy knew that they turn on Zoro if they so much as expected him to be acting as anything other than jailer and executor to Luffy.

“Just a little bit?” Luffy wheedled, fully knowing it wasn’t going to work. “I don’t need to drain you, just a little to sustain me.”

Zoro snorted quietly turning back around to face the road, speeding up the cart again so no one noticed that they had fallen behind.

“Yeah and then what? They kill you for feeding on a human and then me for letting you feed? No thanks.”

Luffy shrugged allowing Zoro to win the argument for now, he turned back into the safety of the shadowed cart and settled with his back against the wall beneath the window. Zoro shifted in his seat so that he was fully blocking any sun from getting into the cart as well.

A fond grin settled onto Luffys face as he closed his eyes. Concentrating on the steady beat of Zoros heart when they were essentially sitting back to back like this was almost addictive. It felt as if he could feel the beat of Zoros heart through the steel walls, the steady cadence settling like a brand over him.

He let the calm measured beats lull him into a light doze.

The ironic thing about this situation was that the hunters, who Luffy could vaguely hear the heartbeats of somewhere on the path in front of the cart, had a plan to execute him, while Zoro who was the one who ‘caught’ him had some plan to try and turn him back into a human.

He was not a blooded vampire, he had never been human, wasn’t turned by a sire or anything of the sort. Luffy was one of a very small sect of vampires who were born from other vampires. His parents, though he hadn’t met them, were both rather old vampires, both having lived many centuries.

Luffy didn’t know much about them, but when he had been born a group of hunters had descended on his family’s clan. His mother hadn’t made it out and his father had sworn vengeance. Luffy hadn’t met the man ever but he had heard of the rebellion he was launching against hunters. Luffy had been raised by his grandfather, who spanned even more centuries than his parents had combined.

Born vampires age differently than those who are turned. Vampires who are turned stop aging at the age they changed, but born vampires mimicked human growth. He grew and looked like a normal human until he reached adulthood and from there he didn’t age.

Back when he had been caught, Luffy had thought it was lucky the hunters didn’t know he wasn’t a blooded vampire or he’d have been staked on site. Any vampire is gifted with great strength and speed and heightened sense, but born vampires took those boosts and amped them up even more. A blooded vampire would be able to hear the heartbeats of any living creature in about a mile radius if they had been at full strength, Luffy who had been stuck in a cage for a few days and only been gifted small rodents to feed on could still hear the heartbeats for a few miles in any direction. His strength and speed were greater too, which is why had the hunters known they wouldn’t have let him live this long.

Luffy had been caught in a rather stupid way, which he had admitted to himself when he was placed into the cart where he currently resided. Had this been a normal steel cart he could’ve broken out as soon as he was put in, but since this was a group of relatively skilled hunters the iron had been washed and soaked in holy water, and blessed, meaning Luffy couldn’t use any of his enhanced strength on it.

The hunter group had been hunting a younger coven, full of blooded vampires who were rather obvious about where they were hiding. Luffy, himself had been roaming with his coven brothers, Ace and Sabo a few miles away from the stationed hunters.

One night as they had been roaming, looking for food and just generally doing whatever they had wanted to do. Ace and Sabo were both blooded vampires, but they had both been turned long before Luffy was born, and as it was with vampires with age came power and despite not being born vampires the three of them possessed somewhat level skills in strength and speed. Luffy still outstripped the two of them in terms of senses.

Which is why on the night he was captured, Luffy had been relaxing and joking with his brothers, then the most mesmerizing sounding heartbeat had pricked the edge of his awareness and before he knew if he was full tilt running in the direction of the steady heart.

He had followed the sound to the edges of the hunter encampment, staring transfixed trying to pinpoint which human it had come from. This close he could smell the blood of the human he was trying to find and the scent was so pleasing and so calling to him that his feet had carried him from his hiding spot unbidden once he realized the object of his focus.

It was a human in the back of the group cleaning a long sword, the steady heartbeat and scent pulled Luffy forward. The human seemed to sense him before the other did and his head shot up, the two of them holding eye contact, bodies all but paralyzed. Luffy was so transfixed that the other hunters had gotten the jump on him and pinned him.

 He had begun to struggle when one of them clamped iron shackles around his wrists, that were similarly doused in holy water and they all but immobilized him.

They threw Luffy into the cart and Luffy struggled once his cuffs were off of him, slamming around the steel cart trying to find a weak spot and force his way free.

The sudden imprisonment and loss of freedom sent him into a panicked tailspin, the rapid heartrate of the hunter he had been so transfixed on only spurred on his frenetic mood.

But once the human began to speak, Luffy felt his body relax and zero in on his words in focus. In a deep baritone the hunter had argued to take Luffy to some kind of headquarters since he hadn’t attacked them or any human (that they knew of), he was pushing for some kind of ‘fix’ to gain return him his humanity.

Luffy snorted to himself, there had never been any humanity in him to begin with. Luffy could also hear the other hunters after they had agreed with Zoros plan for some sort of trial, and he knew that the majority of them were planning on an execution as soon as Luffy set foot in the city.

Over the past few days, Luffy had gotten to know Zoro, who was the driver of his cart. They had traded stories of how they had each grown up and whatever fact had come to mind. Luffy also knew for a fact that Zoro had been the one to start bringing him food despite the protests of the rest of the group. He also knew that leaders of the hunting group had been reprimanding Zoro for his causal relationship with Luffy since they had begun talking.

Luffy had never felt so enamored with someone before, but something about Zoro had been so familiar and so usual to him that it wasn’t like gained sudden affection for the other man, it felt as if it’d always been there.

He also knew Zoro felt the same. He could hear it in the upticks of Zoros heartrate when they talked and the way his breath would catch in his throat. It made something warm and comfortable spread across Luffys chest as he recalled the other mans reactions.

Somewhere between reminiscing and really falling asleep the cart had come to a stop at night had risen. Luffy hummed to himself stretching. He ached to be able to go outside.

With nothing else to do, and no hunters talking about anything interesting enough to eavesdrop on Luffy began to hum and sing to himself about how extremely bored he was.

When a hunter hit something against the edge of his cart to get him to shut up Luffy just cackled and kicked into the next verse even louder than before.

Sometime around mid-afternoon the next day, Luffy awoke to the sudden quiet of the area around them. All of the others hunters had moved onto somewhere else but Luffy could pick Zoros heartbeat approaching the doors of his cage. Luffy cocked his head curiously as Zoro opened the door and climbed inside.

“What’cha up to Zoro?”

Luffy didn’t like the uptick that Zoros heart was beating out, he seemed unduly stressed over something.

“We need to get you out of here. Theyre going to execute you as soon as we cross into the town.” Zoro whispered working at the shackles that had been connecting Luffy’s ankles to the floor.

Luffy laughed, “I knew they were planning to kill me.”

At Zoros incredulous look he just shrugged casually. Of course, he had known, it wasn’t like this group of hunters that were trying to kill him. They probably wouldn’t be the last ones either.

“I’m going to try and reverse this, theres some witch just outside of town who can reverse the bite.” Zoro said taking Luffys face into his palms.

Luffy smiled at him and covered Zoros warm, large hands with his cold ones.

“It wouldn’t work Zoro. I wasn’t bitten.”

Luffy could feel Zoros pulse in his fingertips and he closed his eyes letting the feeling and sound of the heartbeat that had ensnared him so fully to wash out anything else he was aware of at the moment.

“What do you mean? You have to have been bitten?”

“I was born, not bitten.” Luffy said idly, tracing patterns onto the backs of Zoros hands. He felt Zoro go rigid and his heartrate kick up about ten beats per minute in speed.

“Theyre definitely going to kill you, we have to go.” Zoro stressed.

Luffy had been so focused on the heartbeat blanketing him and the overwhelming sensations of having Zoro so close that he hadn’t noticed the approach of the other hunters.

The door was thrown open and Zoro yanked out backwards. As he was pulled away Luffy felt his anger spike for the first time in days. He was railing blindly at the walls and the doors of his cage, he could feel Zoro’s stress and almost taste it on his tongue.

The hunters were arguing loudly all overtop one another. Saying things about duty and honor, about swayed loyalties and enthrallment. There was a somber silence for a long moment. Luffy continued his thrashing, his only focus was the stunningly rapid pace of Zoros heart.

And then-

Nothing.

The heartbeat that he had followed blindly here, and that was so hypnotic and comforting was suddenly there, and just like that Luffy felt all anger in him heighten to dangerous levels. He was vaguely aware of himself snarling and the hunters moving towards him.

As soon as they opened his door he flew at them, blindly attacking and relishing in the feeling of his daggered nails raking across his chest. But as he caught sight of Zoro’s body lying on the ground the fight was sapped out of him. Though he could live forever and though Luffy knew he could fight his way out of this, seeing Zoro unmoving on the ground and not being able to hear his heart anymore, Luffy just didn’t see the appeal of immortality anymore. He paused just long enough for the hunters to drive a stake through him granting him blissful darkness.

\- 801 –

Zoro was going to die of exhaustion before this night was over and he was going to put all of the blame onto his sister.

He had his first night off of having to train or work out or do anything for the police academy and instead of doing what he wanted to do – sleep and drink, and the sleep some more – he was here being dragged to some underground concert for a band he had never heard of.

Perona had wheedled and whined until she had gotten her way, bemoaning that he was too busy and that she really wanted to go to this show with him.

Zoro knew she was mostly exaggerating to try and make her point, but she had won him over in the end by making a big show of how she’d have to go alone without anyone she knew to an unfamiliar venue all because “Zoro’s too lazy to care for his sister.”

So begrudgingly, Zoro had gotten dressed from his comfy clothes and rolled off the couch and followed his sister downtown. Now he definitely knew she was lying because she had all but ditched him to try and get to a spot near the front as soon as they had made it inside the venue.

Instead of following her to the front of the crowd Zoro had chosen to camp out by the bar and the doors. The crowd was so thick that Zoro couldn’t even see the stage or anyone on it.

Zoro repressed a sigh when he saw another cluster of Peronas friends enter the venue and follow the same path she had taken early. Turns out she had lied about almost anything to get him out here. She had even admitted to Zoro on the train ride over that she didn’t even know what band was playing, but she knew her friends were going so she wanted to as well.

Zoro sighed internally, there was no real reason he had to come along with her, Perona just found some strange delight in making him do things he didn’t want to do.

“Your ugly face is hurting sales.”

Zoro snorted loudly and rolled his eyes as Sanji, who was bartending at the moment slide over to him.

“Your face hurts sales enough swirly brow.”

Sanji scoffed in disbelief and handed Zoro another beer.

“Perona force you out again?” It was less of question and more of a statement as it fell from Sanjis mouth in wry amusement.

Zoro groaned and faceplanted onto the bar. His answer of yes was muffled into the wood. As Sanji laughed at his predicament, Zoro blindly shot out a hand, a smile working onto his face as he felt his hand jab into Sanjis stomach and the resounding splutter it caused.

The opening band came on and Sanji was called away by a group of girls who were clearly aiming for a drink, and from the way they were eyeing Sanji they were hoping for a major discount. Zoro scoffed a laugh into his beer, knowing Sanji there would definitely be a large discount for them.

The opening band wasn’t bad but Zoro couldn’t really find it in him to care. He was so exhausted he was contemplating the pros and cons of sleeping at the bar when Sanji returned.

“Why don’t you just leave them idiot?” Sanji sighed gesturing to the way Zoro leaned his head into his hand and blinked slowly at him.

Zoro smothered another yawn, “I gotta walk and take the train back with Perona and she really wanted me to see this band for some reason. What do you know about them?”

Sanji pondered for a moment, “I can’t remember the name, its something long I think? That or its an acronym. Also, if you and try to leave without her you’d never find your way home don’t lie.”

“Wow. So much help.”

Sanji punched him in the shoulder lightly, “The band is relatively good. I don’t mind the music so much, there 2 guys and a girl who are the main band. They also have this guy who comes in for a few songs, plays violin and sings hes really good, a lot of people come for him. He probably knows more people in this bar than I do.”

Zoro hummed thoughtfully, briefly wondering how a violin would even work with the song styles. He was assuming the main band also followed this alternative rock sort of vibe the opening band had going on.

His interest in that passed quickly and he went back to doing one of the things he wanted to do which was drinking.

Sanji kept sliding beers down his way and Zoro kept pretending not to notice the slight hike in his costs as Sanji kept handing out more and more discounted drinks to any girl who walked near the bar.

“Just don’t puke on my bar.” Sanji said in passing as he handed Zoro what must have been his fourth beer.

“Like I’ve ever puked from drinking.” Zoro boasted as he took a sip of his newest drink.

Sometime in between beer three and four, the opening band had left and how the main band was out if the cheers of the crowd were anything to go by.

The music wasn’t so bad, Zoro admitted to himself as he sat there listening to their first few songs. It wasn’t really his style and he’d probably not and go to see this band on his own time, but it was definitely the best music Perona had dragged him to listen to.

“Okay!” One of the male member of the band called out effectively quieting the crowd, “Our little bro is here and I know you’re all a big fan of his.”

The crowds noise level rose an unbelievable amount as this little brother was mentioned, Zoro assumed it was the violin player Sanji had told him about.

“But!” The same voice cut over the crowd again, once again quieting them, “He’s can’t stay all of tonight with us sadly, baby bro’s gotta take his violin playing to a boring symphony tomorrow. So, we only get him for this next song.”

The crowd made noises of dissent and upset over this fact, but that was quickly replaced by cheering as the boy must’ve come onto the stage from the wings. He could hear someones laughter and the cheers got loud to an almost obnoxious degree.

Their drummer counted them off and for some reason Zoro felt himself anticipating whatever was going to happen next. He hardly heard the soft vocals of the only girl in the group, or the hum of the electric guitar.

What he heard was the plucking of a violin and then the long drawn out sounds as the bow moved. Zoro felt himself be pulled to his feet at the first long note.

He didn’t know what it was but whatever melody the kid was playing was so familiar. It was like a song he had heard a long time ago, long enough that he didn’t know the words, but still he knew it well enough to know how the next few bars of music would sound.

Zoro pushed his way into the crowd trying to see just who was playing this sound that echoed around his head like a faded memory.

The crowd was a thriving and fluid mass around him, as he was jostled a few steps forward and then back. The push and pull were frustrating and despite his height Zoro still couldn’t see just who was playing on the stage.

He knew the song was ending as the violin turned to a more melancholic tone and the other instruments faded softly. Zoro stood stock still in the center of the crowd as he finally caught sight of the violin player. The kid was actually just barely younger than he was and somehow over all the noise and bodies around him, caught Zoros stare.

There was something simmering there, just barely enough to let Zoro know that he somehow knew this boy, who stood equally still on the stage.

A stagehand came out and shuffled the boy away, Zoro learned his name was Luffy as his brothers called out their goodbyes which Luffy had excitedly returned. Just before he disappeared back into the wings of the stage Zoro could see Luffy crane his head trying to catch a glimpse of Zoro again.

But the crowd had begun moving to the next song and there was no way for them to catch each other’s gaze.

Zoro spent the rest of the concert and unmoving force in the middle of a chaotic crowd. He felt like he needed to go and follow Luffy but he knew that he was gone and the disparity of what he wanted to do and what he could do left his feeling disjointed and unable to do more than sway a little with the crowd.

A week later, Zoro was idly contemplating trying to go back to another concert to try and find the band and the boy who played a song that had previously only existed in Zoros mind.

However, as Perona told him that the ‘kid who played the violin’ was just signed to some really big symphony across the country Zoro felt something in him close off and recede back into the recesses of his mind.

He threw away the idea of going to see the band again and just grabbed another beer from the shelf.

\- 1000 –

Zoro hadn’t planned on his life to turn into some kind of vigilante movie, but here he was stuck in a jail cell by himself. The rest of the crew he had been working with was also stashed somewhere else in the dank prison.

All of them were tried and found guilty of treason and there were all going to executed by the time the day was over.

They also all knew the charges were faked and there was nothing more they could do about it.

They were all innocent, maybe not of every charge they had been given, but of treason they were innocent but yet the government had only looked the other way.

It had started simply enough.

After he had graduated high school, two of his friends had started getting into something online with some sort of justice group. Usopp liked to think he was some sort of master hacker, but every time he had ever mentioned that Nami and Zoros eyes would meet over his head and they’d both share a look of exasperation.

Regardless, Usopp had somehow made contact with this group of ‘internet revolutionaries’ who were focused are exposing some web of government secrets. The web of secrets was what had pulled Nami in, and once she was in Zoro really could find a way to stay out of it.

The sad part is Zoro doesn’t actually quite know what secrets they had been trying to expose. He knew the government had been doing something shady with money, and dealings in the poorer parts of towns. He knew the rich got it easy and the poor and people who tried to fight back were the ones who took the brunt of whatever hit they were given.

Zoro’s roll was really really simple most of the time. If and when they would ever have to break into somewhere or if there was some sort of fight coming Zoro was there. The group itself was rather small, less than twenty in total doing everything. Most of them were like Usopp and Nami and operated behind the scenes, but Zoro knew that he and at least one other person was sent out to fight.

The entire operation was headed by some guy who used some dumb codename Zoro never learned when talking to all of them.

So, it had started small, just hacking information and exposing what they could about the injustices the government had been trying to pull on them.

But as the heists got bigger, and the secrets they exposed were more dangerous, the government began labeling them a treasonous and started doing anything possible to find them.

People like Luffy and Zoro, who were just mostly fighters, were sent on almost every mission, because no matter what their teams were doing, whether it be going to break in somewhere, or just going to the store, there was an agent of some kind following them.

Shit had hit the fan though soon after that though.

One of the hackers who worked with their group, whose name and face Zoro didn’t even know because he had only ever met the people he did missions with - so more often than not just him and Nami and Usopp – had turned them into the government agencies that was tracking them to save himself from any repercussions.

Usopp had actually been the one to find it, and he had tried to warn everyone of it ahead of time. But stupidly, instead of scattering when they had the chance the entire group decided to let the government’s plans play its course and to keep on doing what they had been doing.

From there it was only a matter of time, in small groups the members of their agency were captured and arrested. Zoro had put up one hell of a fight though and he knew at least 3 of those agents would never be able to walk the same after their fight.

He was more at peace once he found out that he had succeeded in buying Nami and Usopp enough time with his fighting for the two of them to make it off the grid. He hadn’t seen either in prison or during trials so he could only assume they were safe.

Through the bars he had heard of what happened when the last few members had gotten captured. It was actually just one person who had been captured finally.

The last to be taken had been Luffy.

From what Zoro had heard, Luffy had had a chance to leave and escape, because the head of their organization had made it out, and was planning something to get them out of there with the other few members who managed to escape. But Luffy had turned him down.

Zoro felt strongly similar to Luffy when he had heard that, other members had scoffed and said they would’ve cut and run as soon as the chance appeared but like Luffy, Zoro would have rather gone down raising all hell rather than tucking his tail and escaping.

And if the rumors were true, Luffy had taken down and permanently injured more agents than Zoro had done. For some reason that made him feel proud of Luffy, despite never having met.

The trial had been a shitshow. The ‘lawyer’ they had been given didn’t try very hard to change their sentences or even argue for them.

For some reason, after they had been labeled as treasonous and sentenced to death the first two who were slated for execution had been himself and Luffy.

Zoro could only assume it was some sort of personal grudge based on how many agents the two of them had collectively damaged. It made Zoro idly wish he’d taken more of them down when he had the chance.

The prison was somber on the day their sentences were to be carried out. Even though it would only be himself and Luffy today the mood in the prison was bereft of anything but crushing depression.

They came for Luffy first.

Something inside of him felt unsettled and restless once he’d been taken away but Zoro chalked it up to his own impending sentence.

Then they had come for Zoro.

Something inside of him felt sick delight at how uncomfortable the two guards who came to get him looked.

“Execution doesn’t sit well with you?” Zoro had sneered as they led him away.

One shook his head rapidly, while the other opened his mouth a few times.

Zoro rolled his eyes, “Well what is it? Im about to die who am I gonna tell?”

This seemed to mollify the guards because one began to explain to him.

“The other one we just took up there, Luffy, he-” The first guard cut himself off, still unsettled by something.

Zoro his interest pique wondering just what Luffy had done.

“When asked his last words,” The second guard continued, “He just smiled?”

“Then he said something really confusing.” The first guard muttered.

“What’d he say?” Zoro all but demanded something in him needing to know what the last words were.

“He said something like ‘one thousand lives is a long time, see you on the next go.’”

“The fact that he smiled and laughed on the execution block is what I cant get out of my head.” The second guard shuddered, “Who does that?”

The breached the harsh daylight and led Zoro to the executioner’s block. For what was supposed to be a bleak situation Zoro felt rather light.

He wasn’t worried about his impending doom, for some reason. Something about what Luffy had said struck a chord in him and eased him of all worries.

As he took his place on the scaffolding, the executioner asked him for any last words. Out of the corner of his eye he could see his two guards fidget.

Zoro made a noise of contemplation and a small smile graced his face. He could see the guards stiffen at the action, but he no longer paid them any mind.

“Nothing you want to say?”

“No,” Zoro shrugged, “I’ll save that for my next life.”

\- +1 -

_“A man will come carrying the history of a thousand years on his back and challenge the world to an all-out war”_

It was the freedom of the ocean that had originally called to him. Something out there pulled Luffy from the shores of his home and called to him, making him restless the longer he stayed still. Luffy was not one to ignore his instincts so like he had promised his brothers he had set out to sea.

Even before he had met Shanks and before he had told his Grandpa about his dream of Pirate King, he knew it was what he wanted in life and what he was meant to be.

He was King and the King of the Pirates ruled over nothing.

But his domain would be the wide-open spaces of the sea and his freedom that it held.

Luffy was not one to be bothered by stupid things or things he didn’t understand, but what he knew was that he wanted to be as free as possible, to do whatever he wanted.

So, he sailed into a whirlpool and escaped in a barrel. The path he took didn’t matter so long as he got there.

He found a new boat that in addition granted him a new friend, Coby, who spent the entire journey extoling the dangers of a man people called ‘Pirate Hunter Zoro’. Luffy tried to hide the satisfied smile that wanted to grace his face, and he could guess he failed at it because Coby just launched into another lecture on the dangers of Zoro.

Luffy waved them off easily, telling Coby that’d he’d decide if Zoro was a good guy or a bad guy for himself. Though deep in his chest Luffy already knew that answer.

And if Luffy so happened to hear people planning on betraying Zoro as he made his way through town it wasn’t his fault that he had to knock them out.

It was tied to a wooden post, thick enough to be a tree that Luffy had found him. Once again ignoring Cobys calls as he scaled the wall and casually walked over to Zoro.

As smirk settled easily onto Zoros face once they made eye contact.

Something deep in Luffys soul settled into place as they two of them held their gazes. Every fiber of his being was pulsing at the heady rush of relief and recognition he felt as he and Zoro met once again. The restlessness that had always lived beneath his skin settled for the first time.

“How’d you get here?” Zoro had asked am amused tilt to his lips.

Luffy hummed a short melody, eyes glinting as he saw the recognition in Zoros face as he listened to the song, “Took a really long trip on a really long road.”

“Well it’d seem the fates are rather kind to me then? To lead you right to me?” Zoro said, the double meaning to his words not lost on either of them.

Luffy laughed loud and free, he could see the grin pulling at Zoros face as well, “Seems like I’m the lucky one you’re stuck here. If I untie you, you have to join me in being a pirate.”

Zoro paused to consider it, “But I have dreams of my own. I’m going to be the best swordsman there is.”

Luffy felt pride fill his chest at the conviction in his words, at the image of the two of them standing atop the world. He leaned down into Zoros line of sight, a challenging smirk on his face.

“If I get you your swords then you’ll have to join me.”

He pressed a dry and fleeting kiss to Zoro’s chapped lips and rocketed off to find the swords, his own delighted laughter echoing in harmony with Zoros.

Luffy had hardly cared that he had dragged the marines son all around the base, just as he had hardly cared that people fired bullets at him, he was rubber now and though he could still feel the shot of a bullet like an echo in his memory it would do nothing to him now, but it would harm Zoro and he couldn’t let that happen.

Luffy laughed, delighting in the consternation on the marines face and the way Zoros shoulders had immediately relaxed upon his return.

He felt so light, he could do anything. He passed over Zoros swords to him, pausing as they both held onto one side of the rope-tied bundle. The excess rope draped easily over their hands and hand the swords not been there, their hands wound have been clasped. There was a long moment of silence between the two of them as they took in a gesture that was still so familiar to them despite how long it had been since they’d been able to be life this.

“It seems that you and I are the same.” Luffy whispered conspiratorially.  Zoro opened his mouth to continue the statement but was interrupted by the arrival of more marines. Zoro shot him an annoyed look but the overwhelming fondness and affection he had had in his eyes also Luffy recited a sentiment they hadn’t been able to express for ages was undeniable

As Luffy had expected Zoro agreed to becoming a pirate with him.

“My dream is to become the Pirate King.” Luffy said, steadfastly ignoring the marines who were huffing about the fact the he was setting Zoro free and continuing to ignore them. “It’d be embarrassing if you couldn’t become the greatest swordsman.”

Luffy struggled with the knots keeping Zoro in place, but managed to free Zoro just as Morgan was attacking.

And like no time had passed at all the team work between the two of them flowed as easy as a dance. Like it always had been, one filling in the spaces the other left behind. Luffy didn’t even pay any attention as Coby tried to warn him of Morgans attack, he just focused on knocking out the blithering son of Morgan. Just like he had known Zoro was there to knock Morgan out of the way.

“Nice, Zoro.” Luffy had smirked as he heard Morgan crash and fall somewhere behind him.

“Leave it to me Captain.” Zoro had returned easily, unspoken layers of promise in his statement.

The words were different from ones he had heard lifetimes ago, but they carried the same weight and conviction that they always had, and the same conviction they would always have. Because after a thousand lives in a thousand worlds they had found each other once again like they had promised, and it was like nothing had ever changed.

_“Besides, he only said a thousand lives, that’s not forever.”_

_“Then I shall wait for you in our one thousandth and first life.”_


End file.
